Analyte measurement in physiological fluids, e.g., blood or blood-derived products, is of ever increasing importance to today's society. Analyte detection assays find use in a variety of applications, including clinical laboratory testing, home testing, etc., where the results of such testing play a prominent role in diagnosis and management in a variety of disease conditions. Analytes of interest include alcohol, formaldehyde, glucose, glutamic acid, glycerol, beta-hydroxybutyrate, L-lactate, leucine, malic acid, pyruvic acid, steroids, etc. In response to this growing importance of analyte measurement, a variety of analyte measurement protocols and devices for both clinical and home use have been developed.
Many of the protocols and devices that have been developed to date employ a signal producing system to identify the presence of the analyte of interest in a physiological sample, such as blood.
While a variety of such signal producing systems have been developed to date for use in the measurement of a wide variety of different analytes, there continues to be a need for the further development of such systems.
Relevant Literature
Patent documents of interest include: U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,200,773; 5,902,731; 4,613,569, 4,847,196; EP 0 908 453 A1; WO 94/01578 and WO 94/01544.